UAlbany Unveils New School of Business Building to Serve as Hub for Innovation

and Entrepreneurship

Announces New Undergraduate Major in Digital Forensics

ALBANY, N.Y. (August 19, 2013) -- University at Albany President Robert J. Jones, joined by the campus community and regional leaders and legislators, today cut the ribbon on its state-of-the-art $64 million School of Business building and unveiled the State University of New York’s first four-year undergraduate degree program in digital forensics.

Located at the University’s grand entry plaza, the new School of Business Building will serve as a hub of learning and innovation for business students, alumni and the community at large. It will aid in the School’s effort to recruit top students and faculty, while serving as a focal point for connecting UAlbany to the business community.

The four-year digital forensics program is the first of its kind in New York and only the third such program in the nation. Given the evolving complexity of information systems, the digital forensics program will provide students with the high level training needed to meet the information forensics and security demands for organizations in all sectors of the economy, including health care, government, financial services, and private industry.

"The new building provides our students and faculty with a stimulating, world-class learning environment that promotes innovation, networking and the sharing of ideas and resources. It will place our School of Business within the top tier of business schools in the nation," said President Jones.

"I applaud Governor Cuomo, Chairman McCall, Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, Senators Hugh Farley and Neil Breslin, and all the members of the New York State Legislature for their support," said Jones. "I commend our business school Dean Donald Siegel for his tireless dedication in bringing this facility and the many innovative educational and entrepreneurial programs he has brought to fruition over the past few years. Thanks to Dean Siegel, our business school is ranked 86th among 450 business schools nationwide. I am confident that over the next five to 10 years we will reside among the top 50."

The MBA program at the School of Business was recently ranked 86th nationally by U.S. News & World Report. This places the school among the best in the state and nation, ahead of such institutions as North Carolina State University, the University of Miami, the University of Oregon and many other larger public and private universities. Most notably, U.S. News & World Report ranked the School of Business No. 1 in the nation for job placement, due to the fact that 100 percent of its MBA students secure employment within three months after graduation. The full-time MBA will be expanding in 2014, with new concentrations in finance, marketing, cybersecurity and entrepreneurship.

"The University at Albany School of Business embraces academic tradition, state-of-the art information technology, real-world experience, a practical work ethic and an entrepreneurial vision of the future," said Siegel. "This facility will enable the University to attract the best students by providing them with a premier business education built on innovation, entrepreneurship, and excellence in research. The facility will also help us extend our initiatives to promote entrepreneurship and engagement with the business community, such as our chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, the award-winning Small Enterprise Economic Development (SEED) Program, and our $500K New York State Student Business Plan Competition, which is now the nation’s fifth largest student business plan competition."

A State-of-the-Art Facility

The new 96,000-square-foot School of Business building received $54 million in support from the 2008-09 New York State budget. UAlbany has also raised more than $8 million in private support for the new building, well on its way to its goal of $9.75 million.

It features technologically advanced classrooms and meeting spaces, breakout rooms for team projects, expanded facilities for career services, student reception areas, collaborative research centers in technological and social entrepreneurship, cyber-security, and institutional investment management, and additional graduate assistant work space. It also houses a trading room on the first floor equipped with Bloomberg terminals.

Designed by Perkins+Will, a recognized leader in higher education design and sustainable architecture, the new School of Business building is inspired by the existing Edward Durell Stone-designed Academic Podium and residence halls that dominate the uptown campus. The new building preserves a modernist formality of the campus’s aesthetics, with an interior featuring floor-to-floor terracing for maximum circulation and natural lighting and an exterior represented by both solid and transparent volumes.

Consistent with the University's commitment to sustainability, the building integrates Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) measures, incorporating green building design elements to improve energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. The building is projected to receive LEED gold certification.

Industry-Leading Collaborations

The School also continues to collaborate with the University’s $32.7 Million RNA Institute to commercialize research and expand innovation opportunities through its ThermoFisher Student Venture Fund. The first invention from this program, designed by a team of life sciences and MBA students, is currently in the licensing phase.

The new building will also house the University’s award-winning Small Enterprise Economic Development (SEED) Program, which promotes and fosters small business and microenterprise. To date, the SEED Program has provided more than $1 million in funding and helped create 120 jobs in the Capital Region. The program, a collaboration of SEFCU, UAlbany’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Empire State Development (ESD), the School of Business and the University’s School of Social Welfare, was named a 2012 Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award recipient. Other winners included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University.

The School is also one of only three public universities in New York State with dual accreditation in its business administration and accounting programs by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The other two are the University at Buffalo and Baruch College. Fewer than two percent of the world's 13,000 business schools hold a dual AACSB accreditation in business administration and accounting.

As a University at Albany School of Business faculty member for more than 35 years, Senator Hugh Farley, ’58, has served both the University and New York with distinction. Senator Farley was instrumental in securing funding for construction of the new building in 2008. "The faculty, staff and students at UAlbany’s School of Business have helped propel the school to a reputation as one of the finest in the Northeast," said Senator Farley. "The School’s new home will further cement its status among the elite business programs in the country."